I'd not buy a LG monitor

Hint for Microsoft:

- Display drivers don't need access to the network

- Display drivers don't need to write to the window manager

- Display drivers just need to display the data that needs displayed

- If you sign a driver, you take responsibility for it. Else just leave people run any driver they see fit

Whilst it's preaching to the choir, I would attribute 50% of the blame to Microsoft. Loading any old thing and running it is not very responsible.

It's getting really hard to find a solid, reputable brand of screen manufacturers that don't pull this kind of crap. I swore off Samsung screens after their popup ads in phones and TVs. LG was my next choice but this is deterring me even further.

I decided I would never buy an LG monitor after mine broke and I had it shipped back three times for diag and repair. Each time it broke again soon after. They finally agreed to RMA it, but that didn’t mean a new replacement, it meant a refund, and not even for the whole price I had paid. Unfortunately the price had gone up a few hundred dollars since then, so I couldn’t even buy a replacement. This basically means they sold me a junk monitor I had to deal with for a year and then tried to get me to give them an extra $300 to roll the dice that the next one would work properly. I bought a BENQ instead, and it’s been solid.

I would simply disable windows update. It always seemed insane to me that the solution to preventing RCE was to open an RCE channel to basically every provider that has installed a driver or an application on your machine.

Each auto-update is by definition remote code execution.

I'm in the same boat. Given many of the other brands do this as well, what options do we have for monitors and TVs?

In fact, what I really want is just a display. They can keep their “smart” stuff; I'm not interested.

So: Dell, BenQ, Asus (ProArt/ROG)?

* https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-monitors/

Is there any hdmi dongle that can be used to mitigate this?

Keen to hear other recommendations. My DELL screen is working quite nicely but has weird burn in problems when connected through a Thunderbolt dock. What other brands (apart from the insanely priced Apple screens) still make high quality, reputable screens?

I have an LG monitor... and while running Linux, will definitely not be buying another... this is ridiculous. I've been weary of "smart" TVs for a long while, WTF do you need a microphone on a TV?!?

If I buy a TV and it doesn't work without connecting to the internet, I'm simply going to return it. Changing this after the fact should mean a class action lawsuit. It's ridiculous, and MS should absolutely restrict this kind of crap... They (Microsoft) auto-load the software for Logitec mice and cameras as well, but at least they (Logitech) aren't injecting ad/spyware.

I would totally prefer to buy something without spyware. But so far I have not found a good alternative to my 42" C-series OLED. You do have to carefully configure it to not phone home, but besides that (and some minor problems with peak brightness), it's great. If there was a non-spyware replacement, I'd buy it.

LG monitor works perfectly fine on my mac studio. Feels like Microsoft should be doing business differently.

Choosing wisely doesn't prevent any given manufacturer from adding crap like this in the future. They might not push out adware today, but nothing seems to stop them from doing so in the future.

That's what makes the LG controversy uncomfortable to me: the McAfee ads were pushed out years after some owners purchased their monitors.

I was about to comment in wonder that people deliberately download and install hardware-related craplets deliberately, which is something my parents would do. (Creative Labs used to be very bad about this.) Then I realized there's now a (MS-approved!) mechanism by which devices can just ask Windows "Hey, mind installing this silently for me?".

Ghastly.

> In what timeline is this acceptable behaviour by a fucking monitor to tell it’s manufacturer what [naughty] video you’re currently watching?

But LG already did that 10 years ago. If you didn't care then, why do you care now?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6778397

Discussions:

LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48956688

Update: Microsoft responds to LG monitors installing McAfee ads on Windows

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/07/microsoft-responds-t... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49028024)

Why analog monitors is better. Harder to install spyware. So called by the industry "Smart devices" are dumb for privacy reasons.

I have the same dual 32" LG setup at home and the dayjob, and have never had any issues or any requirements to install anything for them to work. That said, they're QHD, not 4k or 5k, and probably 6 years old. I'm not a gamer or a high-fidelity consumer, needing the displays to be dumb and reliable at rendering text and the web.

Best thing I've done - monitor wise - is buy a 2019 iMac 5k and convert it to work as an external display. Such a beautiful display. Only downside is once you go 5k it's very hard to go back to any lower resolution. I ended up converting a (much cheaper) 2015 iMac 5k for use in the office.

99% of owners don't have an issue, you're some sort of power user terrorist.

Aah yes Temufication.

This comes down to shitty vendors.

LG monitors are not behaving idiotically on Linux. Just saying.

"Smart" = "Ads"

maybe elaborate a little here next time